Sr. FPGA Engineer Seen this week
Xona is the navigational intelligence company bringing real-time, centimeter-level certainty to any device, anywhere on Earth.
With Pulsar - the world’s most advanced PNT satellite infrastructure in Low Earth Orbit - Xona will offer a future-proof, backwards-compatible global positioning system optimized for absolute precision, superior power, and robust protection.
We’re seeking a Senior FPGA Engineer to lead the architectural specification and design of next-generation LEO PNT satellite systems. You will own the FPGA signal-processing pipeline from concept through flight-ready hardware, making critical trade-offs between mathematical idealization and physical hardware constraints.
What you’ll Do
FPGA Architecture Ownership: Define and specify hardware architecture for high-dynamic acquisition, tracking, data decoding, and measurement processing pipelines.
DSP/FPGA Implementation: Lead fixed-point design, resource budgeting, and pipeline optimization to achieve performance and latency targets.
Technical Leadership: Establish RTL best practices and guide junior engineers through complex design cycles and hardware validation phases.
Cross-Functional Integration & HW/SW Partitioning: Define and optimize HW/SW partitioning in collaboration with SW teams; ensure efficient SW interfaces, seamless integration, robust system-level testing, and preservation of performance margins.
Performance & Risk Management: Drive timing closure, power optimization, and system-level performance verification; resolve complex cross-domain issues.
Vendor & IP Integration: Evaluate and integrate third-party IP cores, define acceptance criteria and compliance testing.
Verification Strategy: Establish robust verification frameworks, including simulation, emulation, and hardware validation.
What you’ll bring:
PhD or MS/BS in EE/CE or related field, 7+ years of FPGA and DSP implementation experience.
Demonstrated ownership of complex FPGA signal-processing systems from architecture to hardware validation.
Deep expertise in fixed-point DSP implementation, pipelining, and resource optimization.
Strong experience with high-speed interfaces and complex FPGA subsystems.
Expert proficiency with FPGA toolchains, static timing analysis, and on-chip debugging.
Preferred Qualifications:
Experience with satellite communications, esp. with GNSS receivers and in spread-spectrum systems.
Familiarity with processing of satellite-related measurements (code/carrier/Doppler/CN0, PRs, DRs).
Experience supporting HIL and over-the-air validation environments.
Key Competencies:
Strong DSP foundation with practical FPGA implementation expertise.
Execution-focused mindset with emphasis on timing closure and hardware validation.
Ability to collaborate across systems, RF, software, and navigation teams to deliver flight-ready FPGA solutions.
For U.S. Roles: To comply with U.S. Government space technology export regulations, applicant must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the United States (i.e. Green Card holder), or other protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3).
For U.K. Roles: To comply with U.K. regulations, this role requires Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS) checks, and successful candidates must be eligible to obtain UK Security Clearance (SC).